The Effect of Initial Practice with Dominant and Non-Dominant Hand on Acquisition, Retention and Transfer of A Complex Motor Task

Malihe Moones Tousi, Toktam Emami and Seyed Mojtaba Hoseini

Department of Sport Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.

Corresponding Author E-mail: Mojtabahoseini_61@yahoo.com

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/2543

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of practice orderwithdominant and non-dominant hand on acquisition, retention and transfer of basketball dribbling skills of female students at Ferdowsi University. The subjects were 20 female students of General Physical Education (19-24), who did not have any experiences in basketball with dominant right hand. They were randomly selected and equally assigned into two groups. The subjects practiced within the program for 4 weeks, 2 times a week and 45 minutes per session. Group A practiced with their dominant right hand for the first four sessions and then switched to their left hand for the second four sessions. Group B practiced reversely. The subjects were assessed by Slalom-Dribble-Test in pre-test and post-test. Retention and transfer tests were performed one week after the exercise was finished. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups in acquisition of dribbling skill (p=0.053). Movement time has been significantly reduced from pre-test to post-test (p=0.00). The results showed better performance of the right hand compared to the left (p=0.042). Both groups had a shorter dribbling time with the right hand compared to the left hand in the post-test and retention test. There was no significant difference between two groups in transfer task (p = 0.16). The results indicate that practicing with dominant and non-dominant limbs in the initial motor learning seems to be important to improve performance of both limbs and to strengthen bilateral competence of the learners.

KEYWORDS: Basketball Dribbling; Handedness Inter-manual Transfer; Skill Acquisition; Retention;

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